Boeing workers going on strike

Boeing workers going on strike

Boeing has some issues on its hands. The airline company is facing worker strikes, as around 1,500 workers at Boeing Co.’s rocket facilities are angry over retiree health insurance disputes. This strike is just the latest sign of the issues between the worker’s union and the company. Boeing suffered huge losses when its commercial jet production was halted by a month-long strike in September.

Bob Wood, a representative for locals of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers said in a statement: “The main issue is just the heavy cutting of health insurance. They’re doing away with retiree medical.” His association represents nearly 500 striking workers in Decatur and Huntsville, Alabama. Other workers on strike are from California and Florida.

Boeing earlier in September, pulled back from a proposal to eliminate retiree medical benefits for new hires to prevent more strikes by their workers. The company on their part claims that they have given fair proposals to each of the three locals. However, all the company’s proposals have been rejected by the worker unions. Some of the projects being affected by these strikes are the launches of a pair of NASA science satellites, a weather reconnaissance spacecraft, and a classified payload for the military.